


blindly

by reignofsummerstars



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, M/M, Noski (OC), Pining, Pre-Bakoda, Trans Bato (Avatar)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:48:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27564823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reignofsummerstars/pseuds/reignofsummerstars
Summary: When the Southern Water Tribe goes to war, all the men go. Including those from nearby villages. Including Bato's ex-husband, who is exactly the person Bato wanted to see when he's racking up another year of pining for Hakoda. A reunion, of sorts.
Relationships: Bato/Original Male Character
Comments: 14
Kudos: 21
Collections: Meteor Mutual Club Extended Universe: The Originals





	blindly

**Author's Note:**

> This is what happens when the discord server ships Bakoda but thinks Bato's too pretty and wonderful not to have had every single person in the SWT fawning over him. This one's for those crazy kids! Noski is the man Bato married at 18 or 19, and they split up after 3 years; you're now caught up.

“So you and Hakoda?”

“What?”

Noski nods at Bato and gestures back to the cabins where Hakoda is likely still poring over maps and correspondence, maybe even the ship’s inventory to plan ahead. It’s late, and Bato and Noski have taken watch on the deck, but the night is quiet, and Bato knows Hakoda, knows he’ll be putting off sleep tonight so he doesn’t wake in a panic over visions of a body coming to him in his sleep.

Despite this, he’s forced to shake his head. “No.We’re close, but no.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Noski says, and Bato flinches. “I wasn’t trying,” he snaps.

Noski levels a heavy gaze at him and gently calms a wayward strand of Bato’s hair, tucking it carefully behind his ear. “You never did have to try, handsome. You’ve always had my attention.”

Bato doesn’t know what to say to that, doesn’t know how to wrestle the grief strangling the hope in his chest anew, and suddenly it’s like he’s a young man again, married but somehow unable to make it work. Noski is right in front of him but he still feels miles away. It’s been years since they were together, since they’ve even seen each other last in Noski’s village, but war and necessity aren’t inclined to be any kinder than usual, so the night finds Bato keeping watch with his ex husband, frozen in place on the deck.

Noski continues. “You just. You look at him when we all do, but it’s more than that.You look at him like you used to look at me.”

“I still could.” It’s a whisper, barely audible over the low wind, and Noski could swear he imagined it, but Bato’s hand clenches into a fist on the railing. “While we still have the time.”

“Don’t promise me that.”

“Then what do you want?”

Noski hesitates. This is a bad idea, one that would only twist them up into coils, that would make any kind of separation messy, especially the kind of separation most plentiful in wartime. Especially when it’s not him that Bato wants, not really, not if he had his choice. “Anything you can give me. Even if it belongs to him.”

Bato doesn’t say anything, but his hand leaves the railing and turns over, palm open. Noski’s hand hesitates over Bato’s, thumb and forefinger brushing callouses Bato has made without him, before he takes his hand.

They have a job to do, and even on the open ocean late at night, they’re not allowed the luxury of a night alone, of a reunion and introduction at once. There have been reports of the Fire Nation navy in this region, sweeping through coastal towns they’ve all but laid claim to, so a watch becomes essential for the tribesmen.. Even spread among the fleet, there’s rarely room to breathe. It takes days before Noski and Bato can find themselves alone. The simple press of a kiss, close mouthed and frighteningly hesitant, and a hand resting just below the jaw is sweeter than fresh fruit and more thrilling than a hard won victory.

Reaching dry land and sharing a tent is a silent negotiation, a sense of timing and casual gravitation as the warriors set up camp that somehow leads to them just ending up in the same space. Noski leaves the group shortly after dinner, while Bato hangs back at Hakoda’s side. His eyes follow Noski, though, tracing the lines of his back leading to strong thighs. Noski had been well built when they met at 18, and while he wears his confidence more carefully now, it drapes nicely over thick muscle and a steady posture. He’d always been just a bit taller than Bato. He still is.

Bato knows that up to this point, they can write off this interest as playful, as a surprise followed by forward motion, a distraction and healthy distance afterwards. He knows exactly how badly this can end if he joins Noski tonight, knows the chill of silence where there used to be song, knows how stillness has its own inertia.

Noski only has to wait about ten minutes before Bato comes to their tent. He meets him with a kiss before he reaches up to take Bato’s hair down, spare hand carding through it slowly and coming to a stop at the nape of his neck. “Is this okay?” he asks, and when Bato says yes, he leans in for kisses again and again. He’s in Noski’s lap now and tugging the other man’s shirt off, drinking in the broadness of his chest and his soft stomach, and he brushes teasingly over a dark nipple to see if they’re still sensitive enough to make him jolt and shiver. Noski puts them on even ground, ridding Bato of his tunic and kissing just above his clavicle. “What about this?” Noski asks, and Bato tilts his head further to the side, sweeping long dark hair out of the way. “If you don’t, I may have to kill you,” Bato jokes, but he nearly cuts himself off with a sharp intake of breath as Noski gets to it, sucking and biting at Bato’s skin.

“Nothing visible during the day,” Bato adds.

Noski chuckles and moves lower, well below the line where his tunic collar will rest. “Embarrassed of me already?” He nips gently at Bato’s chest, looking up to his flushed face.

Bato huffs. “I appreciate privacy when I can get it. It’s not like we’re--” and he stops.

“I know, otter, I know,” Noski says, burying his face in Bato’s shoulder. It shouldn’t still hurt, he knows how defensive Bato can get, but he wonders if Bato remembers how deeply he dug his nails into Noski’s heart for years, wonders if Bato knows he left part of himself grasping tightly inside Noski’s chest “You’re right. We’re not married. But I’m still here, and I can still take care of you. Will you let me?”

And Bato melts with a quick “please,” and this is a reminder of how they fucking shine when they’re together, picking up where the other leaves off, a rhythm in tandem of hands and hips and lips and lies, the lies of this hasn’t changed and we still fit and maybe this time. Bato’s voice is sharp and teasing as he whispers to Noski, urging him on while reminding him to be quiet, do you want the whole camp to hear you? 

Communication was part of their downfall, and Noski has learned to better articulate in words what he needed Bato to know, but now he needs Bato to know more than he can take, more than their patch job of an arrangement can handle. Bato always needed words, preferred them for clarity especially as they broke apart, but Noski has always been a man of action. So Noski presses it all into Bato, a kind of language he knows the other man doesn’t fully comprehend. And when they wind down, Noski guides them to rest together, his chest pressed to Bato’s back, skin to skin and nosing gently into the dip of Bato’s neck, dropping quick light kisses to match the pace of Bato’s fluttering lashes. Bato’s true to his word, giving him the solid curve of his waist to rest below Noski’s arm, giving him a delicate wrist for Noski to gently hold, thumb resting just at the inside of Bato’s wrist. Noski tries to take these offerings without the ache of not enough and not mine. 

Bato takes a while to get to sleep, but Noski fights sleep off actively, refusing to lose a moment of holding this man to unconsciousness.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on tumblr at @vanderlindyhop!


End file.
